The Zelda Symphony in Australia? Yep, lucky for us the symphony likes to travel, and what better place to hold a concert than the Sydney Opera House? It was one of the most unique events I’ve ever experienced and here’s a quick recap with a few pictures.
Continue reading “Symphony of the Goddess – Sydney Opera House”
The what awards? Black Betty select who? I asked the same questions the day before the event. On Friday IGN AU held an event at the Maritime Museum in Sydney to announce the best games of 2012 sponsored by Mountain Dew. It sounded like the last place you’d ever expect to see a Pietriot, but also an opportunity. Out of the blue someone offered me a ticket and I jumped on it. Free food, beer, games to play? Why not. It was all worth it when I saw this!
Continue reading “IGN Black Beta Select Awards – Pietriots Style”
We’ve all heard the announcement by now, Wind Waker is being completely remade for Wii U. The seas aren’t exactly forgotten, but I had a different motive for this article. The Zelda Symphony hits Sydney this weekend and I’ve been playing Zelda games in frothing anticipation, namely The Wind Waker which I just finished an entire playthrough of. I’m so glad I did because it’s every bit as amazing as I remember, it was the great gaming cleanse I needed. When Nintendo made the announcement of the remake I almost shat my pants because I was playing Wind Waker a few hours before the conference and hadn’t even thought about the idea of a remake. The game is pretty much perfect already in my eyes. My last playthrough was in 2005 according to my save file, and playing it now allowed me to enjoy it with a different perspective.
Continue reading “The Wind Waker – Sailing The Forgotten Seas”
Wii U strikes back! Wii U behind the next-gen curve! Sony waiting for Microsoft to make the first move! 3DS dominating Japan! Will the Vita make a comeback?
How does that read to you? To me it sounds like sports commentary. The winner goes to the next round and the loser is knocked out as everyone fights for center stage. Is this how we treat artists? Unless you’re THQ, this isn’t how the gaming industry operates. It isn’t how ANY entertainment industry operates. People make cool things, other people buy and share the cool things and more cool things are made. Movies are shown in different cinemas, musicians play at different venues. Why are we being so passive-aggressive about videogames, have our lives gotten so easy that we need to simulate chaos where it doesn’t belong? Gaming journalists apathy for videogames has gotten to the point where Nintendo has actively moved away from the whole scene with Nintendo Direct becoming the sole outlet for their game announcements.
After a ridiculous “Xbox 360 time-exclusive” period where you had to sign up to Origin, Xbox Live and the Dead Space official website to get the demo, it’s finally available for free on PSN. I downloaded it and decided to write some impressions because I really liked the first Dead Space (and Extraction). The first thing the game asked me to do is read two large documents and agree to the “terms and conditions”. I just scrolled down and agreed to whatever it was like a good consumer. The next screen told me to sign into my Origin account, this was so I could get access to the online mode and a possible patch for it. No thanks EA; while it’s nice that the demo has access to online play, I don’t have an Origin account and I will never get one. It’s one more step between starting the game and playing it that nobody needs. Playstation, Xbox, Wii U all have accounts we’ve already signed into. By the way, a patch for a demo is called a “game”. After declining to sign into Origin, another popup appears asking “are you sure?” as if I’m doing something wrong. I already hate this game.
Continue reading “Dead Space 3 – Demo Impressions (it sucks)”
Ever been standing in a line and somebody pushes in? Of course you have. Someone up near the front is calling out to their friends, it’s a group of three. Sure guys, nobody will mind! Anger enters your bloodstream and you yell out, but the people are too far up the line to hear it. Or they ignore it. The frustration starts to boil, but you risk losing your spot in the line if you approach them. They are approaching the line quickly, you have to do something! In a swift act of bravery, you pick up the person in front of you and throw them forward, knocking the line-cutters over like bowling pins and restoring peace and fairness to the line. Tokyo Crash Mobs brings this fantasy to life and it’s as fun as it sounds.
Continue reading “Tokyo Crash Mobs – Outta My Way, Hipsters!”
Slightly Mad Studios should be renamed Completely Batshit Studios, because based on this game they are a bunch of sadistic wankers. After Shift Unleashed I thought they’d be able to make a better game without EA. While the menus are much cleaner, this game’s structure has completely gone down the shitter.
Continue reading “Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends – Another Cruel Joke”
This isn’t a common problem for modern TVs, but a lot of people have reported their Wii U not filling out the screen properly on their TVs and I’ve been dealing with the same thing since launch. Some games have no problems; Black Ops 2 and Sonic Transformed automatically adjust the screen size or have their own options, however Nintendo’s own OS doesn’t (only Miiverse and the eShop have scaling options for some bizarre reason) and ZombiU, New Super Mario Bros. U and Nintendo Land were all oversized on my TV with elements of the screen missing and no option to change it. My Sanyo 32″ LCD isn’t exactly ancient but it’s a few years old and has a funny way of configuring itself, with no direct overscan or scaling option. Yesterday I accidentally discovered a fix and I thought I’d share it.
Vektor is a strange little guy. Last year he got himself trapped inside a CPU in escapeVektor Chapter 1 and he’s been stuck there ever since. Realising that WiiWare has no more exits or answers, he’s made his way to the eShop on 3DS to get people’s attention. He’s brought with him some new abilities, online leaderboards and tons of new levels. Will you answer Vektor’s cry?
Continue reading “escapeVektor (3DS) – Brilliant, Simple, Addictive”
It’s been an interesting week on the 3DS eShop, and for the first time in almost a month I’ve played another system more than Wii U. 3DS has reminded me how amazing it is, with escapeVektor, Gunman Clive and New SMB 2 DLC assaulting the eShop this week. Americans can also finally stop bitching about not having Wario Land II. I’m going to write about Gunman Clive first because I’ve already finished it (I’ll probably never finish The Impossible Pack in New SMB 2). Basically it’s a 2d platformer with short levels, a solid physics engine, and a good western vibe. Jumping, running and shooting are all simple and responsive, the music is catchy and the 3D effect is amazing.
It’s an iOS port as you can see (*groan*), but thankfully 3DS has real buttons so the screen isn’t obscured like this picture. It has its fair share of glitches, once I had a sound loop go forever; even quitting back to the menu left bullet sounds repeating through the speakers. Bizarrely my 3DS completely shut off during one of the boss fights too. One other thing that annoys me is that enemies re-spawn about 5 seconds after you kill them, I’m not sure if this is intentional but it’s annoying if you just want to take your time. It’s a decent game with some problems, but is it worth it? It’s worth it just for the boss battles, but there’s 16 levels of platforming thrown in-between. Levels are short (30 to 90 seconds without dying), but it uses a lot of different physics and objects (by a lot I mean as much as any other game) and doesn’t dwell on a new idea for very long. Boss Battles give you a few simple patterns to learn and they look pretty awesome. Gunman Clive is very short but good fun and has a few surprises. If you have an awkward amount of money left on your eShop account like $3.10 then it’s worth buying.
ZombiU opens with uncertainty. Just what the hell are we getting into? Is the game good, bad, scary, ugly, beautiful? Music plays with a scattered melody as a man stands alone. Sweat drips from his face as the hopelessness of his situation sinks in, he’s surrounded. He threatens to give the scene a 4 out of 10, but the zombies pay no mind. They walk the streets with lopsided confidence. They know how dangerous they are, and soon everyone will.
Wii U has certainly had a big impact on my gaming world, and getting my first real fix of Just Dance (bundled with the console) is one reason why. I’ve tried to play this game a number of times and always failed, dismissing it as something that didn’t even work. I’m moving the Wii Remote up… the girl on the screen is moving the Wii Remote up… why aren’t I winning?
Pietriots 